LABOUR politicians in Northumberland have been left fuming at a Conservative leaflet making claims around the Government’s housing policy ahead of local elections in May.
Northumberland Labour say the headline figure of a 222 per cent increase in the county’s housing target under new Government rules is ‘misleading’.
The Tories have rubbished those claims and reiterated concerns about higher housing targets for the county.
Under the new rules, the Government has increased the annual target for new homes in the county from 549 to 1,649 – an increase of just over 200 per cent. The initial proposed target was 1,769 homes, or a 222 per cent increase – but this has since been revised down.
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Labour has pointed out that the Conservatives have overseen the building of significantly more homes than the target since they came to power in 2017. A Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service found that since 2017, the county has seen 1,552 new homes built a year.
The new target is just 97 homes more than this average, or a 6.25 per cent increase. However, many communities have raised concern about the level of house-building seen in recent years.
Northumberland Labour leader Cllr Scott Dickinson said: “The new government has policies aimed at collaborating with councils and communities. Over the past eight years of Conservative leadership at Council Hall, developers have had the upper hand, resulting in thousands of houses being built without sufficient consideration for residents’ needs and the impact on the community.
“We cannot allow the continued construction of second homes at the expense of local people, along with homes that locals cannot afford and a serious lack of interest in social rented accommodation. We will turn this situation around by working with communities.
“If elected in May, a Labour Council would work closely with the Labour Mayor and Labour MPs representing Northumberland to ensure that local voices are heard, needs are met, and the housing crisis is addressed.”
Responding to the comments, the deputy leader of the council’s Conservative administration Cllr Richard Wearmouth said: “I cannot honestly understand what Labour are going on about.
“Their government at the end of last year hiked our housing targets by 222 per cent and said that councils would have to consider building on greenbelt or face potentially being overruled by labour Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. Our Conservative-run council argued against that huge rise with the government.
“In the last few weeks the target was slightly reduced to 200 per cent. That is still a huge increase that is not warranted and specifically being imposed by Labour against the wishes of residents who have had no say at all in the target.
“It will see large areas of our beautiful Northumberland countryside concreted over whilst Newcastle and London were houses are actually needed are told they can build less homes. If Northumberland residents elect our Conservative council for a historic third time we will fight to protect our greenbelt as we have done for the last eight years.
“We will make sure that houses are built where they are needed by our residents not in some Labour Party-inspired crazy free-for-all which makes the most money for house builders.”
The latest figures from the council show that there are currently more than 14,000 people on the county’s housing waiting list – although more than 8,400 are classed as being already adequately housed.
